New Students
Academic Info

This page contains information about our academic program.

Academic Bulletin (Course Catalog)
The Academic Bulletin contains important information for all students, including requirements for Majors, Minors, Area of Concentrations, and course descriptions. Students will also find Academic Policy information such as Grades, Honors, Dean’s List, and how to make changes to your schedule, just to name a few.

Your Academic Bulletin will be the 2018-2019 Edition. It will be available to view online around the middle of July. Please check back for the link. Until then, you may view the 2017-2018 Bulletin.

Registration for Classes
Freshmen register for their Freshman Tutorial any time between May 7-25 using the New Student Road Map. Some tutorial sections may fill up quickly, so you should review the course descriptions and make your selection as soon as possible.

One of your courses may be English 101, Composition. Your SAT or ACT entrance exam scores determine whether or not you need this course to satisfy Wabash’s English proficiency requirement. If you need ENG-101, it will be added to your schedule automatically in early June.

In June, you will return to campus for Wabash 101, our summer pre-orientation, where you (and your parents) can finalize administrative matters and you can turn in your schedule request for Fall 2018. The Wabash 101 dates are June 18, 21, 22, or 26. You’ll have a chance to register for your Wabash 101 date after you complete the tasks associated with Step 1 of the New Student Road Map.

As a first-year student, you will choose either two (2) or three (3) additional courses during Wabash 101, depending upon whether or not you are placed in ENG-101, as explained above.

During Wabash 101 events, new students will meet with an academic advisor to register for the rest of their courses. Students should make sure they have alternate selections in case a class is closed. Consult the Scheduling Advice on the New Student Road Map for additional details on registration.

Placement Exams: You will complete two online exams before registering for Wabash 101. These exams determine the level at which you can begin study at Wabash in those disciplines. In some cases, the math placement also indicates the level of readiness for introductory courses in other disciplines, e.g., economics, chemistry, or physics.

The Mathematics Placement Exam: All students will complete a course to satisfy a quantitative skills requirement. Calculus I (MAT-111) is a benchmark course in the math department to meet the quantitative skills requirement. However, there are other courses that will do this too, both in math and in other departments. Calculus I is not a required course at Wabash. If you are not interested in pursuing a major or minor that requires Calculus I, you may prefer to meet your quantitative skills requirement with a different course.

Foreign Language Requirement: All students, unless receiving a waiver, have a foreign language proficiency requirement. If you are planning to continue study of a foreign language from high school but not planning to major or minor in that language, it’s wise to consider taking the course(s) that meet this requirement early in your studies at Wabash. If you are placed into a 201-level or higher course of a foreign language, you can earn an additional credit after completing that course with a B- or higher, in addition to satisfying the foreign language requirement.

A student may, of course, begin a new language at Wabash. Our beginning courses assume no background in the language.

AP, IB, and Dual Credit: Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or other credit by exam can receive credit as an elective in an appropriate Wabash department. The exam score must be 4 or 5 for AP exams, or 5, 6, or 7 on the higher-level (HL) IB exams. Exam credit can be awarded at Wabash as a specific course that could meet prerequisite or major/minor requirements (e.g., PSY-101, ENG-105/106) at the discretion of the department or program chair.

Dual credit courses (receiving both high school and college credit) may be awarded contingent upon completion of an additional course in the appropriate Wabash department or program, and approval of that department or program chair. If there is no corresponding department, program, or course at Wabash in which to enroll, no credit will be granted for the transfer course. To earn transfer credit for such courses, students will typically be permitted to enroll in a higher-level course in the same department or program, and will receive credit for the transfer course after earning a grade of B- or higher in the Wabash course. (This is similar to how we give credit for 102 after completing SPA-201 with a B- or higher; the difference in this case is that the department/program chair has to decide which course you go into at Wabash, and which course you get back credit for.) Students who have this kind of credit to be evaluated need to arrange for an official transcript from the college (not the high school) that awarded credit to be sent to the Wabash Registrar’s Office.

Additional Information for Transfer Students: A minimum of three (3) credits per semester are required to be considered a full-time student. A minimum of four (4) credits per semester is considered a full course load, which keeps pace for a student intending to graduate from college in four years. A maximum of five and a half (5.5) credits of enrollment per semester are permitted for a student without special permission.

If a transfer student to Wabash has completed at least one semester of college, he will likely receive a waiver for the Freshman Tutorial requirement. With less than a full year of transfer credits, however, there is a good chance that a transfer student will still be required to complete the Enduring Questions course, which is the other half of the Freshman Experience sequence, in the Spring semester. In either case, check your transfer credit evaluation letter from Wabash to see how this applies to you.

In many cases, transfer students are waived from English 101 and the English proficiency requirement (check the transfer credit evaluation letter to be sure).

If Freshman Tutorial or English 101 are not required, you may be choosing either four or five credits for Fall. You will need to pay close attention to the credits you have already been awarded, the requirements those credits meet and the ones yet to be satisfied, and the requirements of the major and minor you intend to pursue. Because you will have likely met some prerequisite requirements that new students have not, a greater number of courses on the Fall 2018 course listings, i.e. those above the introductory level, will be available to you.

It is also important to identify an adequate number of backup courses (at least two, ideally more) in case you are shut out of a desired course.

Your advisor when you start at Wabash will be Associate Dean of Students Marc Welch. Work closely with him on scheduling during Wabash 101 and over the summer as needed.